Karlsruhe/ Leipzig. On Friday in Aachen, U.S. President
Clinton will be presented with the Charlemagne Award "for
the most worthwhile contribution in the service of the
European unification and community work, in the service of
humanity and world peace." Another award, however, will
be casting long shadows in the forefront of the solemn
occasion. On Saturday in Leipzig, the "Alternative
Charlemagne Award" will be bestowed - and there is a
direct connection to the "original" for Bill Clinton. The
recipient of the "Alternative Charlemagne Award" is Robert
"Bob" S. Minton, a millionaire banker from the U.S. State
of New Hampshire.

For years the 53-year-old man has been dedicating himself
to the struggle against the controversial Scientology
Organization. The arrangers of the "Alternative
Charlemagne Award," which consists of noteworthy sect
critics called the "European-American Citizens Committee
for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the USA"
would also like to give Clinton a sign. That he is regarded
as expressly friendly to Scientology: one of the first actions
which happened in his term was that the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) exempted the organization from taxes
because the organization allegedly had "religious character."
Rumors that the IRS was coerced cannot be quashed.

Clinton also received prominent U.S. Scientologists (such
as the actors John Travolta and Tom Cruise) and promised
them that he would urge that the rights of religious minorities
be observed, mainly in Germany. By that was meant
Scientology, and Clinton's actions even today still have
brought diplomatic friction with them. Bob Minton, in
comparison, has been attracting a little attention in the USA.
Minton is the Chairman of the "Lisa McPherson Trust": he
intends to see that Lisa McPherson's mysterious death is
cleared up; she died almost five years ago. In December
1995, a 36-year-old woman was delivered to a hospital in
the north of Clearwater, the Scientology stronghold in
Florida. However the woman, Lisa McPherson, was
already dead - died of dehydration. Her autopsy showed
that she had not received water for days. In addition her
emaciated body exhibited bruises, insect bites and scrapes
- indices of an unnatural death.

Circumstances surrounding Lisa McPherson's death are still
coming to light - circumstances that indicate considerable
complicity on the part of Scientology (Lisa McPherson
allegedly wanted out of the organization) and which have
cause a rethinking to occur, mainly in the USA. While that
is alarming for the organization in Germany, where it is
under surveillance by Constitutional Security, over there it is
business as usual for them. The "Alternative Charlemagne
Award," even if it is being bestowed in Leipzig, can still
enliven the discussion about Scientology even in far-off
America.